Government Approves €100 Million for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in the Canary Islands

The funding will cover the grant’s objectives, family foster care support, the fight against child poverty, and transition programmes to adult life.

Details of the transfer

The Council of Ministers will approve on Tuesday an extraordinary €100 million transfer to the Canary Islands, declared to be in a state of migratory contingency, aimed at the reception and care of unaccompanied migrant children.

Sources from the Ministry of Youth and Childhood told Europa Press that the allocation will be formalised through a Royal Decree granting the subsidy directly. The decree includes strict guarantees on control, justification, and quality of the services provided to unaccompanied migrant minors.

Conditions and monitoring

• The regional government of the Canary Islands must submit a technical and social‑impact report together with autonomous‑community intervention reports that prove how the funds are used.
• A specific evaluation of the impact on effective equality among boys, girls, and adolescents will be required.
• The report must detail the effect on effective equality for the hosted minors, providing statistics, actions taken, and positive measures implemented to address social barriers that generate age‑ and gender‑based disparities.
• It will also verify that the grant’s objectives are met, including:
  • support for family foster care,
  • combating child poverty, and
  • programmes that facilitate the transition to adulthood.

The Ministry, together with bodies such as the State General Intervention and the Court of Auditors, will be authorised to carry out audits and technical checks to ensure that the money is spent exclusively on the “integral and dignified” protection of migrant children, as emphasized by the Youth and Childhood ministries.

Total funding

• The €100 million adds to €40 million already transferred to the Canary Islands in 2025 for the same purpose.
• For the current fiscal year, the total amount dedicated to this cause reaches €140 million, representing a 140 % increase compared with the previous year and a 3,802 % rise compared with 2021.